Arne Duncan vs. Rick Perry

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Texas’s school system “has really struggled” under Governor Rick Perry, a Republican candidate for president, and the state’s substandard schools do a disservice to children.

“Far too few of their high school graduates are actually prepared to go on to college,” Duncan said on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital With Al Hunt” airing Aug. 19- 20. “I feel very, very badly for the children there.”

“You have seen massive increases in class size,” Duncan said of the Texas public school system during Perry’s terms as governor since December 2000. “You’ve seen cutbacks in funding. It doesn’t serve the children well. It doesn’t serve the state well. It doesn’t serve the state’s economy well. And ultimately it hurts the country.”

Perry has been an outspoken critic of President Barack Obama’s education policies. Perry declined to participate in Obama’s Race to the Top initiative that awards federal grants in exchange for adopting national standards, saying the program “smacks of a federal takeover of public schools.”

Beyond Perry's well-documented Texan-ness, this is the kind of thing that alarms some Republicans about him as a general election candidate. Suburban voters, affluent voters, women, independents and other key constituencies care about education — in most cases a good deal more than they care about restricting federal power.

“You have seen massive increases in class ,” Duncan said of the Texas public school system during Perry’s terms as governor since December 2000. “You’ve seen cutbacks in funding. It doesn’t serve the children well. It doesn’t serve the state well. It doesn’t serve the state’s economy well. And ultimately it hurts the country.”

The Dept of Education spends $85B while test scores decline. Ultimately, the Dept of Ed hurts the economy. There is no need for a Department of Education, nor Arnie Duncan.

You know why there have been massive increases in class s in Texas? It's because of the massive number of illegal immigrants enrolling their children in public schools. The elementary school in our neighborhood consists of a student body comprised of about 95% Hispanic children. We visited the school when our oldest was three to see what it was like. Most of the parents didn't speak English. The school superintendent spoke to a group of current parents and parents checking into the school and made a comment about wealthy white people moving their children into other school districts. So, since the school teaches most classes in Spanish instead of English and the announcement board in front of the school frequently lists announcements in Spanish instead of English, we have our two sons enrolled in a private school that is costing us $39,000 a year in tuition for Kindergarten and 1st grade. Not to mention the fact that our neighbor's son, who attended the neighborhood school for a short time many years ago, was forced by his teacher to teach the non-English speaking students instead of being taught himself. His parents were forced to transfer him to private school. He now attends MIT. Wonder what would have happened to him if his parents hadn't been able to afford his private school tuition?

Big TX isn't big on education it appears. I read in a thread a comment in which the woman claimed to be a TXan and stated that "24% of TX have college degrees and that she was proud to be.. one of them". This prefaces the following observations

1) Why no signage or announcements in English at your neighborhood school?(Discriminatory)

2) Why were the non English speaking parents there during your visit?(Violation)

3)Why are classes taught in a language other than English? (Just Plain Old Dumb reversal of the immersion models a crime)

To state facts is not an attack just as hyperbole is usually not an effective counterattack. If all of this is true you have just supported the ED SEC's resolve, but then it has long been no secret that the state of education in the state was dire and at its best rigged. No child left behind was a TX import and it along has been a 10 year national conumdrum (it was an eloborate shadow for W's run for the WH). Private and home schooling is de rigueur the test data is generated differently; another reason TX is lower in ranking than some other states is that they choose to not participate in SE and SW data collections from time to time. Perry's and for that matter W's policies on education are far from good starts and that has nothing to do with ethnicity it's about values and leadership. After the enactment of NCLB I discovered a wonderful quote "We make many errors in ... our only hope is that we make the least worst mistake". You have just presented a snapshot of one of the worse mistakes imaginable.

Cowards will always attempt to deflect attention away from the pathetic "slave state" of Texas and the smoke and mirrors surrounding everything from its budget to the backdoor toll road dealings.

Face it, to be number one in jobs for minimum wage isn't much to be proud about, in addition to ranking in the bottom five for % of HS graduates, and in reading and verbal SAT scores.

Their abstinence-only sex education has given them the dubious distinction of being first in the nation for teen pregnancy rates AND repeat teen pregnancy rates.

They rank last in the % of insured citizens and 3rd in the number of people living in poverty.

Texas is a shhhhhh talking redneck's paradise while working for minimum wage and simultaneously getting mauled by unregulated utility companies, high insurance rates for both home and auto, not to mention "Rosco P. Coltrane" sitting on the side of the freeway with nothing better to do than pull you over for doing 60 in a 55.

Oh, by the way, Perry is DOA. Watch how far shhhhh talking gets him in NH.

Duncan has barely scratched the surface here. Perry also appointed Texas School Board members who have embarrassed Texas by putting "creationism" into the biology books. Imagine, here we are trying to compete in the 21st century biotechnology-heavy worldwide economy, and this clown is pushing 1st-century AD schooling for Texas' kids.

The education cuts were just one casualty of Perry's corporate-friendly governorship. In fact, the only thing Perry was good for was corporate profits. The people of Texas were way down on his list of priorities.

I'm a Texas boy, and I can tell you one thing they teach here is grammar. Mr. Duncan is having a hard time speaking in a grammatically correct fashion. He says, “I feel very, very badly for the children there.” Even in Texas we know that badly is an adverb and not an adjective. He may feel very very bad for the Texas graduates that only graduate at a 71% rate, I feel even worse for those children he left behind in Chicago where they only graduate at a 59% rate. But hey, with his grammar skills maybe he was part of the 41% that failed to graduate high school.

I'm a Texas boy, and I can tell you one thing they teach here is grammar. Mr. Duncan is having a hard time speaking in a grammatically correct fashion. He says, “I feel very, very badly for the children there.” Even in Texas we know that badly is an adverb and not an adjective. He may feel very very bad for the Texas graduates that only graduate at a 71% rate, I feel even worse for those children he left behind in Chicago where they only graduate at a 59% rate. But hey, with his grammar skills maybe he was part of the 41% that failed to graduate high school.